Reap what you sow
by paper-princess-94
Summary: Tony thought he had put his past behind him, but when a villain appears calling himself 'The Merchant of Death' and using top secret Stark weapons he has no choice but to face his past before it destroys both him and the team.
1. Chapter 1

It all started, as Clint found many things often did in his life, with evil robots.

"_Clint, duck!"_ Tony shouted over the coms to his teammate. The archer dropped to the ground just in time to avoid being shot by the robot which hovered in front of him. In no time at all he had sent three arrows speeding towards the machine's head just as a blast from behind propelled it forwards onto the sharp tips. It hovered in the air for a moment, sparking slightly from the entry and exit points, before falling out of the sky gracelessly. Clint caught sight of a flash of red and gold before the Ironman suit sped off to fight more robots.

"_Good teamwork guys. But please try and use codenames whilst in battle, Ironman." _Clint couldn't help but snort at the thought of Tony actually following protocol for once in his life.

"_Will do, Cap. I'm sure that extra syllable won't make any difference at all when you've got a split second to react."_

"_Just focus on the battle, Stark." _Clint could practically **hear** the annoyance as it rolled off of Steve.

"_Oh, I see how it is. So you get to use actual names and we get stuck with-"_

"_Shut up Stark, focus on not getting killed." _Natasha's voice silenced the verbal battle which was going on over the physical one. _"Hawkeye, how many more of these things are we looking at here?"_

Clint snapped back into focus at the sound of his name and glanced around the area from where he was perched on top of what he guessed was once a church but now looked more like a pile of rubble with a roof. A tall pile of rubble, mind you, that's why he'd chosen this spot.

"_It's looking pretty clear from here. Just those few on the ground near you and then I think we're done for the day."_ He lined up a few more shots and took down three robots in quick succession, leaving them on the ground for the Hulk to finish off. He looked around for a moment before locating Natasha and Steve back to back with a ring of broken robots lying around them and checking their area off of his mental checklist.

It didn't take nearly as long to find Thor and The Hulk, just the noise alone could have informed him of where they were- almost out of sight around the side of a building. The Hulk was just finishing off the three Clint had shot as he checked their area off as well.

"_It looks clear to me, guys. Ironman, do you mind taking a sweep of the area, just to make sure?"_

"_Sure, Birdbrain." _Clint watched as Tony flew up high and made a quick lap of the area, head darting from side to side as JARIS identified any potential threats. _"All good. Do you need a lift down?"_

The archer knew that was aimed at him so he laughed lightly before answering sarcastically. "_Nah, I was thinking of flying down."_

Tony landed beside him and flipped his faceplate up so Clint could hear him clearly without the coms unit, "No need to get sarcastic, Feathers." He looped an arm around the archer's waist and lifted him carefully before flying closer to the others, "And honestly, are you sure you don't want me to build you that wingsuit? It would be pretty awesome, and then I wouldn't have to carry your lazy, ground-bound ass around all the time."

Clint ginned as his feet hit solid ground once again, the cold metal of the suit letting go of him as it continued to hover beside him. "I'm good. Anyway, I don't need to give you any more ammo for the bird jokes…"

"Well that's no fun." Tony complained with a mock-pout and Clint just laughed at him before moving to join the others. The Hulk had shrunk back down to Bruce who had (thankfully) obtained a pair of jeans from somewhere, probably Steve who had taken to carrying a small backpack under his shield. He was leaning fairly heavily on Thor's shoulder but apart from the usual tiredness seemed relatively unharmed by his recent greenness.

The others barely looked like they had even been in a fight. Steve had a minor bullet graze on him shoulder and a couple of cuts on his chest, but they were already healing and didn't seem to be bothering him at all. Natasha barely had a hair out of place, she'd only been fighting the robots on the ground which had moved at an almost painfully slow speed and so hadn't even broken a sweat taking them down, although he thought she may have lost a knife or two in the fight somewhere. And Thor… who could even tell with Thor, it was easier to just presume that he was okay unless he was actively complaining; since his current topic of conversation was what they should have for dinner Clint guessed he was probably okay.

"Those Bastards!" The sudden shout had the entire team whipping around to face the source, which appeared to be a severely ticked-off Tony crouched beside one of the broken robots. His helmet lay on the ground beside him as he glared at the inner workings of what appeared to be a robot arm.

"What is it Tony?" Clint asked as he moved to stand beside the man, partly because he knew that removing armour whilst still technically on the battlefield was a bad thing and partly because he knew that a truly angry Tony was an even worse thing. It took a lot to get Tony angry, he could do annoyed very easily (as Clint knew better than most) but he didn't really get angry.

By this point the others had gathered around and had varying degrees of interest/concern on their faces ranging from Cap's 'I hope nothing's going to blow up' face to Natasha's 'This is just going to make for mare paperwork' glare.

Tony was fiddling with the piece of machinery in front of him, occasionally murmuring something to himself (or more likely, JARVIS) about designs and blueprints and just about any synonym under the sun for the word 'bastard'.

"Tony?" Steve called cautiously, still not completely comfortable around Tony when he went into 'mad-scientist mode'. "What's wrong?"

The genius suddenly whipped around, brandishing the arm so that they could all see the delicate wiring which made up the inside of the severed limb. "This is Starktech." Clint couldn't say he was surprised, they'd been finding leftovers from Tony's gun-smashing rampage almost since the team was formed. The stuff was everywhere. But that didn't explain why Tony was _this_ angry.

"This is unreleased, unseen Starktech! Hell, the only place these blueprints even exist is on my own personal system. I never even built a prototype of this!" Tony was visibly agitated, his face flushed as he paced back and forth and Clint couldn't blame him. If someone had managed to get a hold of the blueprints for something so unseen that Clint doubted even Pepper had seen then what else could they have?

Steve, always the leader, stepped forward in an attempt to calm the engineer, "Is there no way this could just be a coincidence? That someone else had the same idea you had?" Tony just gave him a look that suggested that The Captain's standing in Tony's mind had just dropped a few pegs. "Or was that a stupid idea?"

"It was an immensely stupid idea, Cap." Tony muttered as he hurled the severed arm somewhere into the distance. "Stark Industries was several _decades_ ahead of all other weapons manufacturers in the world when I stopped production. And the ideas which I was feeding into the R&D department were at least half a decade old at that point. These weapons are easily twenty five to thirty years ahead of what anyone else is even _dreaming_ about at the moment!" Tony's brow creased as he delved into his thoughts, but the noise of the rest of the team's mumblings, the shield clean-up crew and the sparking of the final few robots which they hadn't quite finished off was distracting.

He needed loud, familiar music and JARVIS and his computer.

"I need to think this through. Make sure these drones don't completely destroy the bots, I need to look at them more closely." And without another word he stepped away from the rest of the group and blasted into the air, inevitably bound for Stark tower.

Clint blinked for a moment before turning to the others, "Well, that was abrupt."

Bruce chuckled humourlessly "Indeed. I think he just needs some time to sort his head out. It gets to him when his security is pulled into question; it makes him feel less secure."

Steve nods slowly, apparently following the conversation whilst Thor just looks lost. "So if someone's hacked into Tony's system and has taken those blueprints then what else could they have done? Is the tower not secure anymore?"

Natasha shook her head uncertainly- worry lining her eyes as she absently watched the clean-up crew do their work. "I don't know Cap. But we're sure as hell going to find out."

* * *

Tony was hunched over his desk when Bruce found him several hours later. They'd been dragged into Fury's office to report on their mission and had then had to explain why one of their members was currently missing. Of course this had dragged up even more issues which they had then had to explain to Fury as best they could with what they knew. He had not been pleased.

"Found anything yet?" He asked, slipping into his own chair and sliding across the floor to rest next to his friend in the surprisingly quiet room.

Tony just shrugged, his eyes completely focussed on the screen before him as he dragged numerous boxes around typing in codes which Bruce guessed only Tony knew. After one particularly long string of numbers was tapped onto the screen Bruce found himself wondering what exactly Tony was up to. But he just left him to it, content to wait until the man was ready to talk.

When Tony did eventually snap out of it Bruce had found himself dozing off, his face resting against the desk in front of him. A sharp poke to the side jolted him from his almost-sleep and he glanced up to see Tony staring down at him.

"Why did you do that?" He asked irritably, rubbing his side where he had been jabbed with… a pen, probably, from the small blue dot now staining his shirt.

"I'm upset. I needed something to cheer me up." Tony turned his best kicked-puppy expression on Bruce but he just shrugged it off.

"And getting me to hulk out and smash the lab would help how?"

"Well that wasn't my intention… But at least The Hulk is good for hugs." Tony stuck his tongue out at him and Bruce almost laughed at the antics which had become so common in the lab over this past year or so. But he could still see the lines of worry in his fellow scientist's eyes.

"Still not found anything?" He asked, hoping he was wrong and Tony had worked out how this had happened.

"No," Bruce's heart sank, "There's nothing there, no trail whatsoever. JARVIS hasn't even got a logged visit to the files since I hid them. Which means whoever did this can work around JARVIS…" Tony looked despondent at the thought that this person could get past one of his greatest creations.

"You'll figure it out soon, Tony." Bruce stood up and stretched before patting Tony on the shoulder reassuringly. "Thor said something about pizza, if you're interested. There's probably still some up there." He offered a hand to the other man but Tony just shook his head.

"I'll be up in a bit, I just want to take a look at something."

Bruce snorted quietly and nodded, "Okay. I'll save you some, you know how they get around food."

Tony nodded, but had already turned back to his screen. It wasn't until Bruce was nearly out of the door that Bruce heard a shouted "Thanks Brucie, you're the best!" from Tony's workspace. With a smile he slipped out of the room in search of pizza and then sleep.

* * *

It hadn't taken much for Tony to lose track of time so it wasn't surprising that midnight came and went and he still hadn't left the lab. Bruce hadn't returned so he assumed that he had gone to bed. Good thing too, even Tony could tell that he was exhausted from his earlier hulk-out.

Tony had stayed up much later than this before, but it was rare for him to do anything other than eat and then fall into bed after a fight. The sudden change in his behaviour was definitely catching up with him and he felt his eyelids beginning to droop sometime around 2am.

Which coincidentally was about the same time that his computer began typing things out by itself.

At first he thought he was hallucinating, but a quick slap to the face proved that this was real. Once that had been established he turned his attention to the words in front of him.

**Hello, Mr Stark.**

Tony blinked, once, twice, three times.

What was going on!

**You look confused, Mr Stark. What's wrong?**

"Uhh, what? JARVIS, what's happening?" He glanced around when no reply came before his eyes focussed back on the screen.

**JARVIS is under my control. Don't try asking him questions, you'll confuse the poor thing.**

Tony could feel anger boiling under his skin- he could take people hacking into his system, he could manage if someone stole his blueprints. But no one messed with JARVIS.

"How are you doing this? Why are you doing this?" He asked the screen through gritted teeth, resisting the urge to put his fist through it.

**Well, I can't give away all my secrets can I? Where's the fun in that?**

"Well then, who are you at least?"

**I am you.**

Tony looked confused for a moment until the words continued.

**I am your past.**

He was starting to get a bad feeling about this, but he submitted anyway, knowing exactly what whoever it was wanted. "What do you mean?"

**I am you.**

**I am your past.**

**I am the true Merchant of Death.**

* * *

**A/N **Hey guys, so I'm probably going to be sticking author notes at the bottom unless it's something really important so keep an eye out for them ;)

Anyway, this is my first Avengers fic and definitely not my last (I have two more in the process of being written) so if you think the characters are off at all feel free to tell me, constructive criticism really helps when you're starting up a new story :) This is going to be mostly Tony-centric but the rest of the team will definitely be involved, and I have no idea how long it's going to be... honestly I'm not completely sure on the details of the entire story yet, at the moment I'm just going with me gut.

Please review and tell me what you think of it, cookies for anyone who does :D next chapter hopefully won't take too long (you know, unless the world ends tomorrow...) so I'll speak to you guys soon x


	2. Chapter 2

_****_**A/N **Quick warning before we start, parts of this chapter (the last half mostly) are fairly unpleasant. Mentions of the death of children, bombings and a slight brush with suicide. Count yourself warned.

* * *

_**I am you.**_

_**I am your past.**_

_**I am the true Merchant of Death.**_

Tony stared at the screen, waiting for another message to appear. When the last sentence disappeared from the screen and was not followed by another he frowned deeply before beginning to type furiously.

"JARVIS, you back?" He asked, the deep crease between his eyebrows becoming slightly less pronounced as the familiar English accent answered him.

"_I am Sir. I'm ever so sorry about that, I had no control over myself." _

"Don't worry about it J." He waved a hand dismissively at the air before cursing softly. "Hey, can you try and trace… whoever that was? I can't even find a starting point."

"_Of course Sir." _Tony knew that he could leave JARVIS to it so he shut down what he had been doing and began searching the web for any recent mentions of this so called 'Merchant of Death'.

Almost an hour later he had come to the conclusion that the only 'Merchant of Death's to have walked the Earth since the invention of the internet were himself and a few has-been illegal weapons dealers. He had shied away from any mention of his own name before realising that he was ignoring more than two thirds of the search results and diving straight in.

Unsurprisingly he found that the majority of the mentions were hate-sites, websites dedicated to removing his presence from the public eye, destroying his weapons or (in one particularly hurtful case) the execution of Tony Stark for 'supplying the enemy with weapons and risking the lives of his fellow Americans.' There were also a fair few news articles which referred to his old moniker, although he found that the majority of those were several years old by now, and one worryingly bloodthirsty group of his fans who saw the title as a badge of honour.

"_Sir, Doctor Banner would like to know whether you will be joining the others for breakfast today?" _The sudden voice caught Tony off guard and had him whipping around in surprise despite having been around JARVIS for more years than he cared to remember.

A glance at his watch revealed that time had snuck past him once again and was now firmly settled in what could easily be referred to as mid-morning. Standing up slowly he rolled his neck to relieve the ache which had settled there. "Sure, tell Bruce I'll be there in a minute."

It was, in fact, almost ten minutes before Tony emerged into what was lovingly referred to as 'Avengers central' by the occupants of the tower, a large open room which spanned most of a floor and included a kitchen, dining area and one massive living room with plenty of Thor/Steve sized chairs and a TV which until recently had actually had the ability to feel annoyed when referred to as merely 'huge'. (Tony had removed the AI from the machine after he had had to break up a fight over who was better, Batman or Superman, between it and Clint.)

"Nice of you to join us, Stark." Natasha's sarcastic tones drifted across the table to the chair where Tony had decided to slump. When she only received a grunt in response she smirked, "Here." The sound of scraping was heard and suddenly the smell of freshly brewed, super-strong coffee was wafting towards Tony.

He raised his head hesitantly and was met with possibly the greatest sight the world could offer; his giant coffee mug sat before him, the word **GENIUS** emblazoned across the side in red and gold as steam floated upwards from the tempting contents. With a grin he pulled the drink to his lips and took a long sip, ignoring the burn as it slid down his throat and instead focussing on the familiar warmth it left in the bottom of his empty stomach.

"Natasha, you are a goddess." He said with a sigh, placing the mug down in front of him.

"I know." Tony couldn't help the small grin at her response; soon after the whole Manhattan/Loki/evil aliens trying to take over the world fiasco the male avengers had learned that Natasha basically spoke a completely different language to the rest of them, a language where insults could be greetings and passive-aggressive threats were commonplace. They'd also found out that the quickest way into the spy's good books was through compliments (and remembering to tape next top model, they had discovered that both her and Thor had an odd appreciation for the programme which Tony couldn't quite understand…)

"Any leads on that guy yet, Tony?" Bruce's voice came from behind him and a plate of pancakes appeared before him, making him grin in appreciation.

"Thanks, Brucie. And no, though I did have a little cyber chat with him last night when he hacked into my system." A forkful of pancakes made its way into his mouth before either of his teammates could respond, so when Bruce sputtered a confused "What?" there was little he could do except chew in his general direction for a few moments.

After an over-exaggerated swallow he waved his fork at Bruce as he gathered his thoughts. "Whoever it was managed to get into my system again, they were sending me messages in the lab last night and they somehow managed to shut down JARVIS for a while…" He looked thoughtful for a moment before yawning and stabbing another forkful of pancakes.

"Wait, he got to JARVIS? Is that even possible?" Natasha didn't quite look alarmed, at least certainly not as alarmed as Bruce, but she did look puzzled. As far as she knew Tony had made JARVIS as close to unhackable as possible. She just received another shrug from the genius who was currently more interested in breakfast than their conversation.

"Tony, this is important! It could be dangerous to just ignore this." Bruce sounded concerned but Tony refused to look up from his plate until he had finished filling his stomach to an adequate level.

"What could be dangerous? Are you building explosives in the lab again Tony?" Steve walked in looking somewhat apprehensive but mostly just sweaty, obviously just back from his morning marathon.

"Yes he is, but that's not the point Cap." Bruce was definitely annoyed at him now, but on Tony's list of priorities nourishment was slightly above calming down his edgy lab-mate and slightly below inhaling more of the heavenly scent escaping from the mug beside him. This was probably the reason why he was only half listening to the conversation going on over his head and the reason the result of said conversation caught him so off-guard.

He was suddenly grabbed by the back of his t-shirt just as he was taking the last bite of his well-deserved breakfast and turned around to face their ever-so-patriotic leader. "Tony, have you been listening to a word we said?" Steve looked irritated. Good, so he should be for taking him away from his food.

Tony thought back over the recent conversation, trying to find something to prove the captain wrong. After drawing a blank he just smirked at Steve, "I'm afraid not, Cap, I was far too interested in Bruciekin's delicious breakfast."

"Suck up." Natasha muttered from behind her own cup of coffee eliciting a grin from the inventor.

"I was asking you whether you thought this could happen again- whether this guy could take over JARVIS again." Steve looked genuinely worried, damn him. Tony could handle Natasha and Bruce worried; Bruce constantly looked like something was bugging him anyway and Natasha hid it so well that you barely even noticed. But Steve worried, especially when it concerned one of the team, was like looking at a kicked puppy. And ignoring a worried Steve was like taking that kicked puppy and lobbing it off a cliff; no one with a heart (metal or otherwise) could do it.

Tony sighed, his fingers tapping out a slow rhythm on the table as he thought. "I suppose he could, I haven't found how he got in yet so I haven't been able to find a way to stop him doing it again. If I could find that point then I could do something, but this guy's good. Like _really_ good. I don't even know whether _I_ could hack JARVIS…" He rested his head in his hands, the long hours of work from the night before finally catching up with him.

Steve glanced at him, taking in the heavy bags under his eyes and the generally defeated set to his shoulders. "Did you actually sleep at all last night?"

With a scoff Tony pushed away from the table, heading towards the coffee machine for a refill and then back to the lab for more work. "No time for sleep, too much to do."

His path was blocked by a wide chest and he glanced up to see their resident super-soldier watching him sceptically. "Tony, you're no good to us if you work yourself to exhaustion. Go and get some sleep, I'm sure JARVIS can handle whatever you were going to do whilst you rest."

Tony huffed slightly before giving in, he wouldn't admit it but he _was_ pretty tired. "Are you sure you can handle it J?"

"_Of course, Sir. Please get some rest."_

With a light chuckle Tony responded to his AI "You're such a worrier J. I'm fine."

"_I know Sir, but my primary objective is-"_

"I know J, I know. Seriously, I'm fine." With a yawn he turned back to his teammates and smiled. "I suppose I'm off to bed then. Feel like reading me a bed time story, Itsy Bitsy?" he grinned cheekily, his eyebrows rising suggestively.

"Sure, Stark." She smiled kindly and Tony could already tell that she was up to something from the fact that the _Black widow_ was being _nice_. "Once upon a time, there was a rich idiot who pissed me off. I stabbed him thirty six times in the chest and left him to bleed out over his expensive marble floor. The end." Her face was locked in a vicious mockery of kindness and it sent a shiver down Tony's spine.

"You'd make a great mother, you know that right?" The genius asked, sarcasm dripping from his every word.

"Oh, I know." She answered mysteriously before turning back to her coffee.

"Ooookaaayy… And on that ominous note I'm going to bed." He promptly turned around and marched straight into the elevator to take him to his floor, not looking back once and therefore not catching the satisfied smirk which played across his lone female teammate's lips.

Once the elevator doors had closed Bruce turned to the spy with a raised eyebrow, "I can never tell whether your stories are true or not… and I'm not completely sure I want know."

"I get that a lot, Doc." She passed her empty cup into Steve's offered hand for a refill before placing her elbows on the table to create a cradle for her chin, a thoughtful look on her face. "How do you think Stark is really doing? I mean, he's almost as good as Clint and I at hiding how he's feeling when he wants to."

Bruce nodded in agreement. "He's okay at the moment; he's in logical Tony mode."

Steve made a sound of confusion as he sat in what had previously been Tony's seat, pushing Natasha's cup across the table to her and receiving a small smile in return. "What do you mean Bruce?"

"Well you know what Tony's normally like- impulsive and reckless but somewhat controllable?" He gained a nod from their captain so he carried on. "Well, that's his regular state, his comfort zone. When he gets worried about something he lets his genius side out more to solve the problem, like when we have a particularly tricky battle or when something goes wrong in the lab. He gets rid of the mask so he can think clearer." A glance at the other two showed that they were both listening intently.

"It's when he gets past that point that we need to start worrying. When he can't see any way out of a situation he kind of turns into a massive idiot and does the first thing which comes into his head, like with the missile when we were fighting Loki." Bruce nodded, satisfied with his explanation of his friends psyche.

Natasha nodded along with him, understanding in her eyes. "So basically, what you're saying is that we should keep an eye on him to make sure we don't have another palladium incident on our hands?" As the team leader and the (closest thing to a) team doctor, both Bruce and Steve had access to everyone's files and knew about Tony's past battle with poisoning.

"Yeah, pretty much. If he seems to be acting odd just try and calm him down, maybe get him to sleep if he seems tired."

"Sure thing Banner, and if we can't handle him we'll send him your way." Natasha smirked at him over the rim of her cup and Bruce chuckled dryly in response.

"If you want to find out how well the Hulk handles Tony at his most annoying then go ahead. And anyway, that would mean you would have to admit defeat, I thought you didn't do that?" Bruce watched the spy for a moment as she tried to think of a response, eventually she settled for just sticking her tongue out childishly and then ignoring him in favour of talking to Steve about some new gun SHIELD had developed.

Bruce couldn't help but smile at the changes which had come over his teammates since they had first become, well, his teammates. Natasha had finally learned to relax around them; Clint barely ever felt the need to hide in the vents anymore (except in the interest of a prank, usually played on Tony) and Thor hadn't broken a toaster in over a month now.

Stepping into the elevator and pressing the button for the lab Bruce allowed a small frown to settle on his face at the thought of all the things which hadn't changed. Steve's fear of extreme cold, the sad look in Thor's eyes anytime someone mentioned his brother, the way Clint shied away from group gatherings after more than a couple of hours.

And, perhaps the most obvious and also the most accepted, Tony's insistence that he was fine even when something was obviously bothering him. Usually it resulted in him drinking himself into a minor coma (accompanied surprisingly often by their resident super-spy) and then complaining about his hangover for most of the next day. Occasionally it would spark a work-frenzy in the inventor and he wouldn't be seen outside of the lab or the workshop for days on end. Bruce preferred this option; it meant he could at least keep an eye on his friend.

And then, very rarely, Tony had another reaction. One that truly scared Bruce- the one which had pushed him to put Steve and Natasha (arguably two of the most responsible members of the team) on Tony-watch. He'd only seen it once, although he guessed from what he'd been told by Natasha and Pepper about Tony pre-avengers that it had happened before, and it had happened after a particularly taxing mission.

It had been about six months after the forming of the avengers; the team had been called out to save a group of school kids being held hostage by some madman with a bomb. Everything had been going smoothly- Steve was in full-blown Captain America mode and was talking the man down whilst the others watched, uncertain and nervous in their inability to _do _anything productive. As soon as Tony had caught sight of the bomb he had stiffened, Bruce had noticed from his seat beside the inventor and had asked what was wrong.

"_That's Starktech Bruce. That guy is using my invention to threaten __**kids**__!" Tony seemed completely lost and Bruce had to fight the impulse to wrap a comforting arm around his friend like he would have at the tower, there were cameras around and the team had a reputation to uphold. "I need to do something! I can't just sit here and watch!" Tony was pacing by now, catching the attention of their other teammates._

"_Is everything alright, man of iron? You seem disquieted." Thor boomed from where he stood beside Natasha and Clint._

_Tony audibly growled in irritation, not at Thor but just at the whole situation, "That bomb, the one that guy has? Yeah, I made that bomb! That's a Stark weapon, I designed it when I was twenty two, it has a piss-poor design because I was drunk for the last half of its creation, the prototype blew up an outside wall and I ended up with a concussion." Tony was rambling in an attempt to keep himself calm. Bruce didn't think it was working. _

_Natasha stepped forwards and grabbed Tony by the shoulders, looking the man in the eyes. It was proof of how far he was gone that he didn't make some inappropriate comment about their position. "Stark, look at me." Tony made a point of looking away. "__**Stark**__." Natasha's voice threatened immediate violence if he didn't comply so it was no surprise that his eyes snapped to hers the next second. "Calm down, it'll be fine. Cap's got this under control, you know that." _

_Tony nodded slowly, the small motion gaining more confidence as he went on. "Yeah, yeah you're right. Cap's a persuasive guy, he's got this." _

"_I've got what?" Steve approached the group with a serious look on his face._

"_Tony's freaking out because the bomb is Starktech." Clint answered from his place beside Thor, a smirk on his face._

"_Well you would be too in my situation." Tony huffed, crossing his arms defensively._

"_Whatever's going on, you don't have to worry. It's almost sorted out, he's just taking a minute to think things through and then I think we've got him." Steve said with a soft smile, happy to be able to provide good news for his worried teammate. _

"_Good, just let me take the bomb afterwards, I want to see if I can trace it back to whoever sold it to him." Tony looked determined so Steve merely nodded before turning back to the school building to finish his work. _

"_See Stark, I told you there was nothing to worry about." Natasha said, a rare smile on her lips as she watched the inventor visibly relax. _

"_I know, I know. It's just the idea that people like that can get a hold of this stuff gets to me…" Tony trailed off as his eyes tracked to the school building, where the guy (average build, average height, short dark hair) was stood talking to Steve through a phone. Something wasn't right though._

_The usually average face was twisted into a madman's grin and in his other hand he held the detonator. Even from the safe distance everyone had been evacuated to Tony could see his lips moving rapidly around his words, each word enunciated carefully, tightly, perfectly planned. _

"_No." The word was barely out of his mouth before he whipped around and pushed the ear-defenders he had been playing with nervously over Bruce's ears, he could handle some temporary hearing problems but a hulk-out now would definitely not be a good thing. Bruce had gotten better at controlling the other guy, but it was better not to risk it._

_The blast rocked him slightly, the tremor running through both the ground and the air around them but barely touching him because of the suit. It wasn't the blast which made him wince, it was the knowledge that all those lives had either been snuffed out or irrevocably changed for the worse. For no better reason than because he couldn't keep his weapons out of the hands of a madman. _

_When he finally opened his eyes, sure it was safe and he was unharmed, he pulled himself together long enough to check that the team around him were all in one piece and to cast a quick glance over his shoulder, pointedly avoiding looking at what was now no more than a pile of rubble and dust, to check on the captain. He had been knocked back slightly, but seemed okay, brushing dust off of his suit. _

_Turning back to the others he looked at Bruce for a moment before the other removed the ear protectors so they could speak. _

"_I can't…" Tony tried weakly, his voice failing him despite how hard he tried to sound normal._

"_I know, if you need to go then go." Bruce's voice was muted in Tony's ears after the blast but he still managed to hear. With a half-nod Tony closed the faceplate of the suit and zipped into the air. Bruce reasoned that he needed some time to process what had happened so he let him go without argument, silencing the others with a look before approaching their captain to see what he could do to help. _

Bruce remembered that mission so vividly, but what he remembered even better had been what had happened after. They had returned to the tower several hours later with the promise of a debriefing with Fury early the next morning. He hadn't pushed for one that night; they had all silently thanked him for that. Upon returning Bruce had asked for Tony's whereabouts from JARVIS, wanting to check on his friend and make sure he wasn't beating himself up about what wasn't his fault.

Unsurprisingly Tony was in the lab, but upon arrival Bruce noticed that the majority of the giant room was in deep darkness, only one corner illuminated. As he approached he made out the shape of Tony sat on a stool, still dressed in the undersuit from the Iron man suit, one hand pressed to his chest. Bruce almost tutted out loud at his friend's slobbish behaviour but caught sight of what was surrounding him first.

Articles and news clips flew around the inventor; once one was finished playing or being read it was immediately replaced with another. Each one was about civilian casualties, from all over the world, and Bruce caught on straightaway. He could practically _hear_ Tony calculating the chance that his weapons had killed this woman, this child, this family, this village.

He'd also noticed exactly what the hand on his chest was doing, clenched tightly around the arc reactor, knuckles white in a death grip as they threatened to turn any second.

Bruce stepped forward, clearing his throat to get the genius's attention.

Tony's head snapped up and all of the articles closed instantly. Just like that Tony was back to normal- as though nothing had happened, but Bruce had still been able to see _something_ in his eyes as he began to explain some new improvement he wanted to make to the suit and he decided then and there that he'd never let his friend fall into that sort of state again.

Bruce suppressed a shudder as the elevator doors pinged softly before opening with a light swishing noise. Stepping into the lab he smiled at the prospect of work to be done and glanced up at the ceiling.

"Well JARVIS, how can I help?" He asked the AI, desperate to do something to take some of the burden off of Tony.

"_Doctor Banner, if you would proceed to the computer on the far side of the lab Sir started a search which would benefit likely from a human eye helping it along."_

"Thank you JARVIS." Bruce answered with a smile as he moved comfortably through the lab, settling into the chair with a sigh.

This was going to take a while.

* * *

**A/N** Sooo, yeah, sorry about the wait, sadly exams come before fanfiction and I had three in a row just a couple of days after going back to college. I'm aiming to upload a chapter about every fortnight or so from now on, hopefully setting myself a deadline will help me to stop procrastinating :)

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who faved, put this story on their alerts or reviewed you're all awesome :p Special thanks to Tiger of the Storm, Luiz4200, KASMN and LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books for reviewing, you guys made me happy when I was buried under piles of revision :)

And to Luiz4200 and KASMN, nice guesses but no dice :p The Merchant isn't Ezekiel Stane or the ten rings dude (although upon research Ezekiel fits the character I've made for him pretty well, damn me for not knowing more about the Ironman universe... I've never read the comics and unless I'm mistaken I'm pretty sure he doesn't pop up in the movies...) The only other Marvel things I've seen are some of the cartoons and a couple of animated movies so I'm going to be basing this fic on purely the movie-verse :)

Thanks for reading guys, see you next time (hopefully in two weeks ish *fingers crossed*)

P.S. Cap, stop walking in halfway through conversations, you're starting to sound like you have no clue what's going on...

**P.P.S Oooh, I almost forgot, do you guys think there should be a pairing in here, I'm undecided at the moment so I'll leave it up to you :) Send me a review with yes or no (if yes then who with who :) ) Thank you, lovely people. Princess out.**


	3. Chapter 3

Tony was finding it difficult to sleep with the knowledge that some nutjob potentially had full access to every mechanical object in the tower and was willing to use them. In fact, as soon as he lay down and JARVIS had automatically turned off all of the lights in the room and blocked the sunshine streaming irritatingly brightly through his window, he had realised that practically everything could be controlled by his AI. So instead of sleeping he had begun to write a mental list of all the things in the tower which could be controlled by JARVIS.

So far he had had difficulty thinking of anything which _wasn't_ linked to his ever-present robot butler, even the fridge could be locked by JARVIS (he had installed the feature so he could pull a particularly ingenious prank on the team's unsuspecting archer, getting JARVIS to lock the door any time Clint tried to open it. The look on his face had been priceless; and he ate too much anyway, Tony was just looking out for his friend's wellbeing, really.)

Tony was rapidly beginning to believe that he had done _too good_ a job of making the tower the most technologically advanced home in the world. There was nothing which couldn't be potentially turned against them should The Merchant decide he was bored and wanted to mess with them. He grimaced as he sat up, running a hand through his hair in frustration.

It all came back to JARVIS, the building could only be controlled through the AI. But the only options Tony could see were to either find out how this guy was controlling him or to turn JARVIS off completely so he couldn't be accessed through any of Tony's systems. Swinging himself out of bed with a sigh he finally accepted that sleep was not coming to him any time soon and instead settled for a hot shower, hoping to burn away some of the fog with was clouding his thoughts.

The shower helped a bit and Tony soon found himself sat at the end of his bed passing his phone from hand to hand. He could still see only one option which he could do anything about right now, as much as he wanted to avoid it if he could.

"J, would you be upset with me if I put you to sleep for a while?" He asked the air around him, knowing that the AI would answer.

"_If it were for the safety of Sir and the other Avengers then I would understand the necessity. Is that your plan, Sir?"_ The voice would seem devoid of emotions to the casual listener but Tony could pick up subtle hints of concern in the AI's tone.

"I hope not, J. It's just a precaution." Tony chuckled dryly. "Wouldn't want you getting annoyed with me, would we?"

"_Of course not, Sir. I understand." _

"Good, glad we had this chat, J. Now if you'll excuse me there's someone I need to talk to about this whole mess before I do anything." He glanced at the phone in his hands, brows bunching together into a frown. "J, where are Mean Green, Itsy Bitsy and Captain Spangles?"

"_Captain Rogers and Agent Romanoff are currently in the gym; Doctor Banner is assisting with the search in the lab. He has made it so that you may not enter the lab for another six hours, presumably so you will have no choice but to rest." _Tony smiled at Bruce's efforts to stop him from working, no matter how futile they may be.

"Ah, good. Send the bots to 'assist' him a bit, that'll serve him right for trying to keep me out of my own lab." He began to make his way back down to the kitchen, dialling speed dial 1 as he shut his door behind him.

The phone was picked up on the second ring, she must have already known something was going on; she usually lets it ring a few more times unless she knew it was urgent.

"_Tony, what's going on? I got a text from Bruce saying to expect a call from you but he didn't explain anything." _Pepper's voice filtered through the phone's speakers and instantly calmed Tony's overactive mind. Trust Bruce to call ahead, he knew him so well.

"It's a long story Pep, let me grab some coffee first and I'll tell you." She sighed in response which Tony took as an affirmative. "How's Asia?"

"_It's good, I've almost wrapped up this deal in China and then hopefully I'll be off to Japan the day after tomorrow. I just want to get away from our contact here, he keeps staring at my hair and my lags and I can't decide which one bothers me more." _Pepper sounded irritated.

"Well, you know how much I love your hair." His cheek earned him a tired laugh from Pepper as he made his way into the kitchen and set up the coffee machine just how he liked it.

"_Shut up Tony. Now are you going to tell me what's going on or not?" _ Honestly Tony had to admit that he didn't really want to tell her, but it involved the company. If there were robots running around out there with Stark weaponry, no matter how secret, it would eventually get traced back to the company even if it was just because no one else out there could have made them. _"Tony, we're partners in this- you have to tell me what's going on."_

Tony caved at her tone and let out a deep sigh, settling into one of the chairs in the empty kitchen with a fresh cup of coffee in front of him. "I know Pep, I just don't want you worrying about things which you have no control over."

"_If it has anything to do with either the company or you then I need to know about it, Tony. I may not technically be your personal assistant anymore but we both know that I may as well be, and anyway, I care about you. I'd like to think that you'd share that sort of thing with me."_ Tony huffed, she was too good at persuading him to do things and after the palladium incident she _really_ didn't like it when he kept important things from her.

"Okay, fine. But I hope you've got some free time because this may take a while…" Tony muttered, feeling tense about telling her something like this when he couldn't gauge her reaction by looking at her.

"_It's fine, I've got an hour and a half cleared, just in case." _ Tony could hear her smirk and it made him relax a bit. What was he worrying about, this was _Pepper_! If there was anyone in the world he could confide in completely, it was her.

"If you say so." He settled himself more comfortably in his chair and began to recount the events of the last day or so. "So, the team got called out to stop these robots which were rampaging through some middle-of-nowhere town…"

* * *

It was a gross understatement to say that Clint was fond of high places. In fact he even would go so far as to say that being on the ground sometimes freaked him out a little.

Also, no one noticed you when you were up high.

Except Natasha, but he had decided long ago that she didn't count.

Clint's love of high places was how he ended up listening in on one half of Tony's conversation with Pepper. He was lying along one of the metal beams Tony had put in at his request (although not without plenty of moaning) when the inventor entered the room. He seemed busy so Clint didn't announce that he was there like he normally would have, instead content to wait for him to be finished on the phone.

His love of heights also turned out to be the reason that he saw something he'd never seen before- Tony losing his temper with Pepper.

Tony was sat with one hand cradling his head, the other holding his phone against his ear. He let out a loud sigh and Clint guessed that Pepper was telling him off for not sleeping last night. He'd heard from Natasha earlier that he had been sent to bed by Bruce this morning, but that had been less than two hours ago so sleep was obviously still eluding him.

"Pep- Pepper I- Pepper just- Ahhh!" He hit his forehead against the heel of his hand and Clint had to supress a laugh, Pepper was always thorough when it came to telling Tony off.

"Finally, are you done? I really need to talk this through with you." If Clint hadn't been behind Tony he would have been able to see the irritated tick in his eyebrow as he tried to get the woman to listen. Clint could, however, hear Pepper's angry voice from the phone's tiny speakers, the distance turning her heated words into what sounded more like an irate chipmunk.

"No, I'm not telling you what to do."

More muttered shouting.

"Well, I don't see why I couldn't anyway; I am still technically your boss." There was a moment of silence before Tony jumped to cover his arse. "I didn't mean that!"

Pepper's annoyed mutterings from the other end of the phone conversation were getting louder and Clint could imagine that Tony was getting a serious earful for that last comment.

"Pepper, all I'm saying is there are more important things than me getting eight hours sleep every night!" Tony's voice was rising and Clint watched him warily, he knew that Tony could be volatile when he was worn out.

"Yes, I'm saying there're more important things than me!" There was more muttering from the phone, quieter than last time. But Clint knew that quieter didn't always mean calmer, or any more reasonable, as was exhibited by Tony when his voice suddenly dropped to barely more than a harsh whisper. "Well if you feel that way then why are we even having this conversation?"

Tony's phone slammed down on the table, Clint guessed that the only reason the flimsy piece of tech survived was because it was Starktech and therefore nigh-on invincible. Clint considered keeping out of it and letting Tony work his issues out on his own but a muffled huff from his teammate stopped him from scurrying back to his hiding place in the vents.

The brown head of hair dropped back to rest on the high back of the chair Tony sat in, both hands pressed to his face as he rubbed at sleep-heavy eyes. He looked more tired than Clint had ever seen him before, and Clint had seen him after nearly five straight days in the lab. The personal nature of their current enemy was getting to him.

Tony could shrug off a battle with the best of them, but the idea of either the avengers as a whole or him personally being targeted put him on edge. Sure, he could hide behind theatrics and spectacle, and he had a certain love for dramatic speeches before a fight which had made him the team's go-to guy for flashy distractions. But Clint knew he hated the feeling of being targeted because, unlike the rest of the avengers, he was close to people who couldn't defend themselves should they be attacked by vengeful robots or insane mutants.

Clint could understand the feeling; after all it would be all too easy for someone to take down his non-god/super soldier/rage monster teammates if they were caught off guard. One hit to the head was all it would take. Especially Tony, always in the public eye and such a seemingly easy target without his armour. Natasha had long ago told him his fears for her were completely unnecessary as no one could catch her by surprise, the fact that he knew she was wrong from experience didn't calm his worry at all.

So Clint didn't slink back to his hidden little nest- instead he dropped to the ground silently and cleared his throat as way of announcing his presence.

Tony's head whipped around at the sound, his body tensing in response to the potential threat. When he saw it was only Clint he relaxed slightly, letting his lips quirk upwards, "How long have you been up there, Hawkass? You spying on me again?"

Clint chuckled as he leant against the end of the table, watching Tony carefully for his reaction. "I was up there before you got here, Ironbutt. Technically _you_ barged in on _me_." He couldn't help but smirk at Tony's affronted expression.

They sat quietly for a moment as Tony took in the information, he glanced at the archer "So I guess you heard all of that then?"

Clint nodded "Yup."

"Damn…" The billionaire pinched the bridge of his nose, fighting against the exhaustion which was creeping up on him. "I didn't mean to blow up at her like that, I just…"

"Yeah, I get it. You've got a lot to deal with right now." Clint glanced at Tony as the silence descended again; watching the other man attempt to keep his eyes open, head drooping until it almost touched the table in front of him.

Sitting up with a start Tony reached for his phone only to have it snatched away by Clint.

"Give me back my phone, Feathers. I need to call her back!" He tried to pry the phone from Clint's hand but failed miserably against the archer's death-grip.

"No, what you need is to calm down and clear your head before you speak to her again. If I let you call her now then you'd just do exactly the same thing you did just now." He slipped the sleek piece of tech into his pocket and pointed in the direction of the sofa. "Go and relax for a minute, Stark. I'll get you some water and then maybe I'll think about giving you back your phone."

"But Cliiiint…" Tony dragged out his name for an irritatingly long time, just causing Clint to roll his eyes at him.

"Go, Tony." The billionaire slunk away to fall onto the sofa, the soft cushions welcoming him as he face-planted onto them. Clint chuckled at his friend before pulling a cold bottle of water from the fridge for Tony along with one for himself.

As he moved closer to his friend he couldn't help but smirk at him. He was asleep, face down on the sofa with a cushion clutched to his chest like a child's safety blanket. Shaking his head Clint settled himself into one of the available chairs and turned the TV on, making sure to set the volume as low as he could so he wouldn't wake his sleeping teammate.

"I hope you've got a picture of this, JARVIS. It'll make excellent blackmail material." He murmured to the AI, knowing he would be able to hear him no matter how quietly he spoke.

JARVIS replied just as quietly, _"Of course Agent Barton. Shall I add it to the file?"_

"That would be great JARVIS, thanks." Clint grinned, he liked nothing better than turning their resident eccentric's AI against him, in a friendly way of course, unlike this guy who'd been bothering Tony so much recently.

A buzz in his pocket alerted him to a new message and- after checking his own first- he slid Tony's paper-thin creation into his palm. A message from Pepper flashed up on the screen-

**Are you okay? Please call me**

**P xxx**

Clint looked at the message for a moment before making a decision, Tony needed the sleep more than Pepper needed to speak to him right this second (although the man in question may have disagreed) so he quickly pulled her number up on the screen and pressed call.

The phone only rang once before he heard a flustered _"Tony?"_ on the other end.

"No, it's Clint, sorry to disappoint you." He heard a sigh from Pepper.

"_Where's Tony, is he okay?"_ Clint could tell she was trying not to sound panicked, not that he could blame her- Tony was hardly stable when he hung up and she was half way around the world, completely incapable of reaching him.

"He's fine, just passed out on the couch." Clint muttered with a smirk. "I told him to calm down before he called you back and then he was just sort of gone…"

"_You're sure he's okay?"_ The woman queried in his ear and Clint couldn't help but smile at the concern in her voice.

"Yeah, he's fine, just tired. He's got a lot of stuff to deal with right now."

"_Was that a subtle hint that I should lay off him for a while, Clint? You know I'm just trying to stop him from working himself into the ground." _Clint knew where she was coming from.

"I know, but he's stressed and you know how he gets." Clint sighed, rubbing a hand over his eyes tiredly. "Since that guy hacked into JARVIS I think he's been thinking about shutting him down, at least for now."

"_But if he does that then the whole security system in the tower will be shut down. Everything will have to be monitored manually; you'll need to get security guards in. The number of a company I trust is on Tony's phone under contacts."_ Pepper fell into assistant mode unnaturally quickly for a woman who was no longer a personal assistant.

"Got it, thanks Pepper." They were both silent for a moment, unsure of what to say. Pepper broke the silence first.

"_Thank you, Clint."_

"For what?" he asked with a small smile.

"_For keeping an eye on him, I know he can be a handful sometimes…"_

"Tell me about it…" Clint muttered jokingly. "Seriously Pepper, this is getting dangerously close to my maximum level of daily feelings so I'm gonna have to cut you off there."

Pepper chuckled through the phone, her voice calmer than when he had first called her. _"Well, we wouldn't want that now, would we?"_

Clint laughed at her question. "Okay, well I'll let you get back to whatever the hell it is you do when you leave us to babysit Tony."

"_Okay, can you tell Tony to call me when he wakes up?"_

"Will do, bye Pepper."

He waited until he heard her respond with a _"Speak to you soon, Clint." _before hanging up. He placed the phone down on the long coffee table which took up some of the space between his chair and Tony's substitute bed and glanced at his friend. Tony had turned onto his side, the cushion still held tightly under his chin and his brows pinched together slightly in a scrunched-up frown which Clint refused to admit was kind of adorable.

With a grunt he settled further back in his own chair, drawing his legs up beside him as he listened to the gentle background noise coming from the TV. He soon found himself drifting off into a light sleep. Eventually the only sound which filled the large room was the quiet breaths of the two sleeping teammates and the soft click of JARVIS turning off the TV.

* * *

**A/N** Chapter 3 and only one day later than I was planning on putting it up... well it's getting there I suppose :p Lots of Clint in this one and some Pepperony for the lovely StarkObsessed who's review made me giggle like a little kid for no discernible reason other than that I'm apparently very open to praise ) Don't worry if you're not a fan of Pepperony, it's not going to be a key point in the story, just something that'll be referred to every now and then. Next chapter should start to pick up a bit more in terms of story so look out for that (probably out some time around the 12th-ish)

Okay, review reply time (because I'm too lazy to reply using the button-thing... I should probably start doing that...)

LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books- Aww shucks, you'll make me blush :p I'm not really much of a reviser either, but I really wanted to get those exams done so I don't have to re-sit them... It's all done now though so yay! :D

StarkObsessed- Hee hee hee, every time I read that review it makes me giggle stupidly and I'm not sure why, thank you for the lovely review :)

Luiz4200- I certainly wouldn't complain if he was in Ironman 3, he seems like a pretty interesting character :)

Ooooh, guest reviewer, for some reason I always picture a ghost reading my fic when I get one of these, not completely sure why :P Well, if you're out there Mr/Miss Guest, thank you for the review :)

Awesome, see you soon guys *fistbump*


	4. Chapter 4

Tony was finally sleeping, if somewhat fitfully. Memories from a time he'd much rather just forget were weaving their way through his mind, moments of conversations pushing to the front of a dream he was desperately trying to escape from as darkness swirled around him.

Obadiah's voice twisted in his head like a knife in his back, leaving fresh wounds over those barely healed from his betrayal. _**'**__**We're iron mongers, we make weapons.'**_

That damn reporter, he still couldn't remember her name, the blonde one. Her accusations dug at him almost as much as those of his ex-father-figure '_**Is this what you call accountability?' **_her words bit at him viciously, right where he was most vulnerable '_**A lot of people would also call that war-profiteering.' **_

Raza, that bastard. He'd deserved to burn, his only regret when it came to him was that Stane had gotten to him first. But now he couldn't get the man to leave him alone _**'Whoever holds the weapons manufactured by Stark Industries rules the world.'**_ It was like being trapped back in that damn cave; never able to escape the whispers he could hear from the surrounding tunnels, slowly driving him insane.

And finally the inevitable, of course any time he thought of that time it brought back the ghost of that man. For being a friend of Tony's, Yinsen seemed to spend a lot of his well-earned rest time making Tony's life miserable, dragging memories out, kicking and screaming, from the deepest depths of the inventor's memory. _**'My family is dead, Stark... and I'm going to see them now.'**_

The voices wound together until they were one distorted mix, rough and sly and measured and sad all at once, accents cancelling and enhancing one another until it was impossible to distinguish one voice from the others.

'_**And what do you say to your other nickname, the Merchant of Death?'**_

Tony tried to resist.

'_**You really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you?'**_

He couldn't listen to this anymore.

'_**How ironic, Tony! Trying to rid the world of weapons, you gave it its best one ever!'**_

He was clawing his way out of this nightmare if it killed him.

'_**In my village we call those casualties "the Walking Dead".'**_

He could feel himself regaining consciousness, slowly, too slowly. Slow enough that one more sentence slipped through, the original meaning warped until it was lost to Tony.

'_**I never said you were a superhero.**__**'**_

The words rang true to him as he blinked into awareness. How could he be a superhero when seemingly every villain he stopped was only able to attempt their evil plans because of Tony's own inventions? For a moment he lay still as he tried to slow his breathing to a calmer pace, his eyes watching the afternoon light slide across the ceiling.

With a groan he pushed himself into an upright position and tried to gauge how long he had been asleep, but to be honest he couldn't really remember what time he'd dozed off in the first place. He couldn't help but smirk when he caught sight of the archer who had curled up in one of the deep armchairs in the room; Clint even looked like an assassin in his sleep, with a small frown firmly on his face and his arms crossed sternly. Tony had a feeling that this was the most relaxed the agent ever got and couldn't help but think how exhausting that sounded.

As he stood he rolled his head, bringing one hand up to massage the back of his neck where a crick had developed from his odd sleeping position. Tired steps brought him to the table where Clint had left a bottle of water earlier, it was a bit warm now but it would do to wash the awful taste out of Tony's mouth.

Collapsing back onto the sofa with a content smile he glanced at the ceiling. "You there, J?" He asked, making sure to keep his voice low enough not to wake Clint.

"_I am here, Mr Stark."_ The cool English voice answered, sounding slightly stiffer than usual, Tony made a mental note to take a look at that.

"Of course you are, J." He yawned quietly and lay back on the sofa, his arms crossed behind his head. "How long was I asleep for?"

"_I'm afraid I can't answer that, Mr Stark."_

Tony blinked for a moment as he took in the AI's answer. "What do you mean, J?" He asked wearily- suddenly very aware of his vulnerable position.

"_I mean that __**I **__am here, Mr Stark." _The familiar voice sounded foreign to Tony as blood rushed to his ears making everything sound hazy.

It finally clicked. JARVIS never called him 'Mr Stark'; in fact Tony had made a point when he created JARVIS to tell him to never call him by that name, it had reminded him too much of his father at the time, cut too close to still-fresh wounds. In all the years that JARVIS had been operational he had never broken that rule for any reason. For him to do it now…

It wasn't JARVIS.

It was that bastard just showing off how much power he had over the AI again, making sure that Tony hadn't gotten comfortable, hadn't forgotten about him.

"_I see you've caught on, Mr Stark."_ The words were practically dripping with ill intent and Tony suddenly regretted giving his AI an accent which could sound so creepy so easily. It sent a shiver up his spine to hear the voice which was probably the one he had spoken to the most over that last decade and a half twisted to use a tone which was so unfamiliar. It sounded wrong.

"Of course I've caught on- I'm a genius after all." He answered flippantly, not feeling one bit as confident as he sounded. "Now what do you want this time?"

JARVIS's voice chuckled darkly in a way that even Loki could take tips from, _"I merely wish to talk, Mr Stark. And whilst I'm here I may gather some information on your teammates, you never know when you may need to know a super-soldier's weak spot, after all. Or how to take down a god. Or even what exactly makes an assassin tick." _

Tony growled angrily at the idea of him using information collected from _his_ system to hurt his friends. "You bastard, you're not going to get the chance to use that information once I get my hands on you." His voice was still low by Tony standards but it was enough to cause Clint to stir restlessly on the other side of the room.

"_Now, now, Mr Stark. We both know you'd have to catch me first and you're not having too much luck with that right now, are you?" _ The voice asked smugly and Tony felt the urge to punch something growing rapidly.

A mumble from the other side of the room alerted Tony to Clint's awakening, although he tried to hide his reaction in the hope that his teammate would be able to read the situation and would remain silent.

Apparently today was a day of tremendously bad luck because Clint sat up with a yawn before asking sleepily- "Tony? Who're you talking to?"

There was no chance of his unwanted guest not noticing the other man now; Tony had no idea how he would react. He obviously had some sort of interest in Tony which was stopping him from causing him physical harm, but as far as he could tell Clint held no part in the mystery man's plan. Tony just hoped that didn't mean Clint was disposable to him.

Either Tony had hit the nail right on the head or the mystery man was just playing with them because several panels opened in the wall and Clint suddenly had an unnerving number of weapons pointed directly at him. He tentatively placed his hands in the air above his head, and in any other situation Tony would have probably been laughing at the expression on his friend's face but his lips didn't even twitch.

Instead, he stood up and began pacing; at least until a smooth English voice announced that he should "sit down or face the consequences". Tony dropped back onto the sofa, his eyes locked on the point in the centre of Clint's forehead which the tower's internal laser targeting system was highlighting menacingly. He found he was completely unable to move, his body was stiff with tension as he mentally begged for the danger to be lifted from his friend.

With an angry glance around the room he raised his voice to near shouting, anger building up within him that this man would _dare_ to use Tony's own weapons against his friends in his own _home_! "What do you want?!"

The familiar voice chuckled darkly, "_Oh Mr Stark, have you really not caught on yet?_" Tony glanced edgily around the room, desperate for an answer, for something to shine a light on what the _hell_ was going on. Why this was happening. "_I'm just trying to mess with your head_." JARVIS's voice was flat, emotionless; the lack of emotion was scary. "_And this is only the beginning_."

As the voice dropped away the weapons retreated back into the walls, the laser pinpointing the spot on Clint's forehead disappeared and it was as though nothing had ever happened.

For a moment the two avengers sat in silence, both staring straight ahead as they attempted to wrap their heads around the last few minutes. Clint glanced at Tony and frowned, the man's brows were dipped in thought and he seemed to have aged several years in the last ten minutes, suddenly looking his actual age rather than the youthful mask he usually put on around the others.

"You alright?" Clint refrained from using nicknames, it didn't seem right.

Tony laughed dryly and Clint swore he could detect the slightest edge of insanity creeping in. "Oh yes, I'm just _peachy_. My own creations are being turned against me, some evil sociopath has taken it upon himself to drive me insane and I still have no idea where the **hell** he could be!" Tony's voice rose gradually until he was almost shouting at the archer, but he caught himself before he quite reached that point and took several deep breaths. "But shouldn't I be the one asking you that? I'm not the one who just had a collection of the most advanced weapons in the world trained on my frontal lobe."

Clint sighed as he let himself relax back into his seat and out of his previously stiff position. "I'm fine Tony, it's not like I'm not used to having things shoved in my face." He was glad to see that the intentional innuendo coaxed a small smirk onto the inventor's lips. "But we need to work out what we're going to do about JARVIS. If he has full control of all the systems in the tower then this guy could kill us all off whenever he feels like it."

The archer's firm words steadied Tony's mind enough for him to pull himself back fully from whatever brink he had been hovering on ever since that little red dot had appeared on Clint's forehead. Taking a deep breath Tony began to think through his options.

If he turned off JARVIS then the man wouldn't be a threat to those within the tower, or at least that was the theory, at this point they couldn't be completely sure of what exactly he was capable of. But that would leave the team without Ironman and significantly weaken them on the battlefield. It would also make the tower's defences almost non-existent and that any chance of tracking this guy down would be so minute it was almost not even worth mentioning.

"Tony, you know we can't keep risking it. Keeping JARVIS online is going to put the team at risk." He hated to be the voice of reason, but Clint knew that Tony needed to hear it.

The brunette nodded, deep in thought, "You're right, but if I take JARVIS offline then the chances of finding this guy this decade drop significantly…"

"SHIELD found guys like this before we had JARVIS, we can do it again, especially with you on our side." Clint hoped that the compliment would be enough to win Tony over to his side.

"But the guys you were up against before weren't expecting to come up against me at my best, and they certainly weren't prepared enough to believe that they could actually _beat_ me at my best." Tony looked up and locked eyes with the other hero. "This guy is good. Not just skilled or talented. But honest to god, amazingly, ridiculously _good_. And I don't know whether I could beat him at this game even with JARVIS…"

The archer waited as their resident genius weighed up his options.

"JARVIS'll stay online, for now. I still need him to help me find this guy. But at the next sign of danger I'll shut him down. Okay?"

Clint grimaced, not much liking the idea of living in a house which had the means, opportunity and potential intent to kill him at any moment. But he nodded anyway, because he trusted his teammate.

* * *

Bruce had still made little progress when JARVIS spoke up. _"Doctor Banner, Sir is outside requesting entry, has as sufficient amount of time passed for me to allow him in?"_

Glancing up from the screen before him to check the time, Bruce noticed that he had been working for several hours straight and that Tony had, in fact, been away from the lab for at least six hours now. "I suppose so, JARVIS. Did he actually sleep at all?" The physicist wasn't expecting a positive answer and was pleasantly surprised when he received one.

"_He did, Doctor. Agent Barton managed to calm Sir down enough to allow him a few hours of sleep."_ Bruce made a mental note to thank Clint for helping out, he knew the agent didn't really deal with emotions particularly well.

The muted click of the lab door unlocking would have announced Tony's entrance had it not been for the loud complaining of the genius himself as he finally gained entry to the room. "I can't believe you locked me out of my own lab, Banner. That's just hurtful."

Bruce knew that if he turned around Tony would just pout at him so he steadfastly refused to face the other man, instead staring intently at the screen before him. If he had been watching Tony he would have seen him glancing around the lab in search of three very special 'piles of junk'.

"Where are the bots? I thought I sent them to annoy you." Technically he'd sent them to help, but it was basically the same thing when it came to those three.

"Oh yes, they're being very helpful." Bruce smirked at Tony as he finally turned around to face the man, figuring he'd be safe from pouting billionaires by now. "They've been reorganizing all your tools for you. They've been at it for a while now, actually." The dawning horror spreading across his friends face was well worth the amount of time it had taken to persuade the bots to the job in the first place.

It was even better when a sudden clattering sound from around a bend in the room made Tony genuinely gasp and then let out a string of curses. "Damn bots, can't do anything right! You useless machines, get in here right now before I sell you for scrap!" He hollered into the near-empty lab in the direction of the noise. It was quickly followed by the whirring of well-oiled machine parts as the bots sped towards their creator.

Unfortunately they obviously built up more speed than they were expecting because Tony suddenly found three large lumps of sentient metal bearing down on him at an alarming rate. He jumped out of the way just in time to avoid being hit by the bots and just watched them as they tried to untangle themselves from each other after landing in a heap. Eventually he went and helped them back into order with a huff.

Once the bots were lined up in front of him and the muffled snorts of laughter coming from Bruce had died down Tony set about his business. "Bruce, can you help me get them into their recharge stations?" The other man simply nodded and stepped towards the section of wall he knew would open to reveal the three separate spaces.

The bots obediently made their way to their own stations as the wall lifted upwards at Tony's silent command. Dummy chirped at him nervously, its arm twisted to one side in its best imitation of a head tilt. The bots were confused by their creator's odd behaviour, it was unusual for all three of them to charge at once; the only time was after a particularly long work session where all three of them had been needed. But there had been barely any work which needed all of them since the other avengers moved in and they were now more like large mechanical pets than assistants of any kind; although they had always kind of been that to Tony anyway.

With a sigh Tony looked the bots over one last time, "I'm going to put you guys offline for a while, for your own safety." You whirred unenthusiastically. "And for mine too, if that makes you feel any better." The affirming chirp gave him his answer.

"You lot worry too much." Tony muttered with a small grin on his face at his bots' antics. "And I'm talking to you too, Mr big, green and grumpy." He said to Bruce when he caught sight of the scowl the other scientist was sporting.

A tug on his sleeve brought him back to the bots just in time to catch sight of Butterfinger's retreating arm from where it had brought him back to his thoughts. He reached a hand out and ran it down the smooth metal, a smile on his face at the familiar motion. "Okay, ready?" Three arms bobbed up and down in mock nods and drew a dry chuckle from Tony.

"Alright." With one final pat he stepped away from the three robots and began the shutdown sequence. His fingers flew across the keyboard as he inputted the codes and passwords needed to put his bots into sleep mode, purposefully facing away from the three so he didn't have to see the moment when all three arms drooped in synch as the simple AIs were cut from their metal bodies.

"All done?" Bruce asked cautiously from where he still stood beside the bots.

"Yeah, no one but me should be able to turn them back on and if anything does happen to them then I've backed up their AIs and should be able to restore them back to how they were in this moment. That's all I can do right now." Tony rubbed a hand tiredly over his eyes, well aware that a few hours on the sofa wasn't an adequate replacement for a full night's sleep.

Bruce's footsteps echoed in the silence as he moved to stand beside his fellow scientist, resting a hand on Tony's shoulder in a show of comfort. "What about JARVIS?"

Tony sighed and shifted away from his friend, a hand drifting over a screen to wipe away the code which currently filled it. "I think I'm going to keep him up for now. I rang Pepper, and she reckons I should shut him down now but I need him around to help me make changes to the suit so I can operate it efficiently without him. We need him too much right now to just cut him out of the equation like that. Isn't that right, J?"

"_Indeed, Sir." _

Tony smirked up at the corner of the room where he knew a camera was positioned. "And so modest too."

"_May I remind you who built and programmed me, Sir? I believe that may have had an impact upon my personality." _Bruce forced down a laugh at the AI's sarcastic attitude but found that with the full force of Tony's glare upon him he just couldn't keep it down and he found himself covering his mouth as an undignified snort of laughter escaped from him.

Tony tried to keep a straight face but found that it was impossible, settling instead for a gruff "No more talking JARVIS" and a winning smile in Bruce's direction.

* * *

**A/N **Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysor rysorrysorrysorrysorry... sorry... This chapter's so late, but health issues have been keeping me occupied and I haven't really been in much of a mood for writing. But I wrote more Tony angst and interactions with team mates and even a scene with the bots (who are massively under-appreciated in the fanfiction world from what I've seen) Hopefully that'll make up for the late chapter and I promise story progression in the next chapter, right now I'm basically just torturing poor Tony... But you know what they saw, you hurt the ones you love the most, sorry Tony 3

Also, if you want someone to blame for the late chapter then blame Matthew Gray Gubler and his stupid cute hair, minor criminal minds addiction over here, I've reached season 5 in just over a week... I think I've got a problem... But it does mean there's a possibility of criminal minds fanfiction in the future, hmm the possibilities... *insert evil laugh here*

Kisses guys, anyone who reviewed is a shining paragon of humanity and I love you very muchly, mwah! 'Til next time xx


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